The evening world., 1887-10-19

among the something less than $500 which
represent the total membership of the pro-
fess;on.
Their particular line of employment is as
amanuenses, but many have attained great
proficiency, and their services are frequently
required in legal proceedings. They do ex-
cellent work.. The first as II law reporter is
Miss Jennie Turner. Miss II. M. Barber and
Mrs. May Carr Gulick are also noted in this
line of work. Many of the lady stenogra-
pliers of'the city belong to the Stenographer's
Association.
Forty years ago the only stenographer of
any skill in New York was DIR. Houston, who
was employed on a morning newspaper.
Although slow in execution and practising a
clumsy method, he was considered an expert
in those days. It was not until 1886 that
photography which had been published to
the world in 1897, by Ben Pittman, of Bath,
England, was first introduced to the United
States when Henry Nj. Parkhurst began re-
porting speeches in Boston. In the same
year Stephen Pearl Andrews, who later be-
came known as the head and front of a new
school of philosophy known asU niversality in
conjunction with Augustus +. Boyle, intro
duced the new system of shorthand In New
York.
Oliver Dyer became a pupil of Andrews, as
did also Il. G. Leland, who, with one or two
others. travelled through this State organic
ing classes for instruction in the method.
Two bright boys of the Philadelphia High
School, Denis +. Murphy and John j. Nc
Elhone, learned the system and were taken
by Mr.. Dyer to report the proceedings of the
Free Soil Convention which nominated
Martin Van Buren, for President at Buffalo
in l845.
In 1S49 Dyer was employed by the National
InteHigencer to report the proceedings of the
United States Senate, and he secured Muir
ply and McElhone to assist him. Subse.
quently another Washington paper followed
stenographers, of which Mr.. Parkhurst was
made chief, and his staff were William Henry
Burr, formerly, a portrait painter at SYRIA
cuse, and William Blair Lord. A House
Mr.. Hincks was the principal and most ex-
pert reporter. He labored under the disad-
vantage of an incomplete and cumbrous sys
tenn but such was his dexterity that the char.
acter of his reports was equal to that of any
of the present day.
Some time after this innovation Of the
newspapers the official reporting of the de
bates was entrusted to an official corps OF
Englishman, was the head of the Senate corps
for a time, but he was incompetent and Denis
F. Murphy was ultimately entrusted with tile
position, which he filed most acceptably fol
more than thirty years. MIR. Hincks was
made chief of the House stenographers, but
after his death his successor was Mr.. Noel
hone.
The Washington demand for reporters was
such that although the system had been intro
duced in 1916, in 1853 there were but three ex.
pert stenographers in New York. They were
James Thomas Roberts, who had been con,
nected with Gurney's staff of English Parlia
mentary reporters and who wrote Gurney't
system William H. Burr, who had been or
one of the Washington newspaper staffs il
the Senate, and Il. @. Leland, before men.
toned, who had at that time become estab.
lished in the city.
The principal employment of these report
ers was in patent cases in the United States
courts, occasionally in other important law.
suits and the reporting of speeches for the
different papers, for in those days a city
EDITORS ambition was for beats in the matter
of verbatim reporting. This was an ambition
which was laid aside, however, after fifteen
years. experience at Anglicising the press by
~clogging its columns with a plethora of re-
dundant and uninteresting matter at the ex.
pense of news and brightness.
One of Leland's first pupils was Ned I'm.
derhill, who, in 1847. was an operator in &
woollen factory in Western New York. III
1S49, when yet a boy, he went to st. Louis
where he took a position On the ST. Louis
Republican and was the first stenographer
with one exception, who practiced his pro.